Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

-Joshua 23:6

Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.

-Joshua 23:11

Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you:

Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.

-Joshua 23:12-13

Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

-Joshua 24:14-15

Have you posted a scripture today? Link up so we can strengthen each other's faith.

28 November 2009

I hit a deer tonight on the way home from my parents' house. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that the deer hit me. Poor thing. Once it was done tangling with the car it was obviously badly injured, but it limped off to the side of the road. Then another car went by, frightening it, and it tried to run away. Running is hard to do when your back legs don't work anymore, poor thing. I'd never hit a deer before, and I was still on my parents' street (it's in the city, but heavily wooded in their neighborhood), so I called them first. Then, as the deer continued to struggle, I realized that it needed to be put down, and so I called the police. They were pretty quick to arrive, but by the time they got there it was all over for the deer anyway.

The officer kindly checked my car over. He didn't find any more damage than I had found, but his flashlight was bigger, and I appreciated it. Then he asked me if I wanted the deer.

Uh... I wouldn't have a clue what to do with a dead deer. I know that somehow people take them from cute furry animals to ground meat in the freezer all the time, especially since it's deer season right now, but I haven't a clue. We made some phone calls, hoping to find someone who would do the work for part of the deer and I learned some things. Apparently it would have needed to be "processed" tonight, so that it didn't go bad. Additionally, apparently the bruising from that sort of impact ruins the meat. Also, the people there at the scene said that it was a small deer. So the bruising would likely have messed up most or all of the meat. I wished that I had some way to do something with the hide at least, so that it wouldn't all go to waste, but again, I have No.Idea.Whatsoever what to do or how to even start. And I couldn't very well google it right there in the street! Plus, I have a talk to give in church in the morning (that's ready), and I'm a Sunday School teacher (that lesson's NOT ready) and Monkey was there with me. So the police are going to dispose of the body. Apparently it's not that uncommon: the officer knew of another hit deer out in the county earilier today, and he told us how he'd been at a scene where someone had hit the deer, but it had stayed in the street, and then the guy behind them hit it too, so the one deer did in two cars.

Monkey knew we'd hit it; in addition to hearing and feeling the thumps I think he overheard my phone call to the police, though I was out of the car with the doors shut. His Aunt Maulbeere came over and kept him company while I was talking to the officers. When it was all done, he wanted to see the deer, so I let him out of the car, though we didn't go very close. Basically just enough to see that it was laying on the ground and not moving, but that was enough to satisfy. We talked about how the deer had gone home to Jesus on the way home, and how it wasn't hurting anymore. It was comforting to me too.

There's nothing I could have done: I never saw the deer, and all the thumping was behind me. The officer thought that it'd hit head first, and been "knocked loopy" so it shouldn't have been in much pain. And really, it was all over pretty quickly.

24 November 2009

I've been noticing that pie has a very bad repuation, and after looking at the nutrition facts for one of our favorites, pumpkin pie, I'm puzzled about why. Here's what I'm baking tonight:

For the Crust:

1 cup flour, sifted1/2 t salt1/3 c shortening3 T cold water

Sift flour, add salt. Blend in the shortening with a pastry blender till it's a coarse meal. Add the 3 brimming tablespoons of water, mix a bit. I can never get it to come completely together at this point. Turn it out, crumbs and all, onto a strip of wax paper that's about twice the size of your pie pan. Place another sheet of wax paper on top, and sort of mush the crumby pie crust together. Roll out between the sheets to 6-8 inches. Fold in half, then into quarters, and center on the wax paper again, handling as little as possible. You'll probably still have crumbs. Roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. I find that rolling it till it's just peeking out of the wax paper on both sides makes a piece that's just perfect for my pie pans. You want it to be about 1 inch larger than your pan, if you place it upside down on your rolled-out crust. Carefully peel the top piece of wax paper, and center the crust, still on the bottom piece, over your pan. Be careful, it's going to be inclined to flake. Carefully peel the other wax paper off. I usually end up with bits that stick to the paper, but seldom ever have actual tears. If it does tear, just sort of squeeze it back together, or patch it with extra after you're done. The crust at this point is suspended just over the pie pan, so carefully lift a section and let it droop all the way into the pan. There's not a lot of stretch in the crust, so don't try to press it into place. Cut the excess off around the edge of your pan with a sharp knife, and set aside. Your crust is ready to fill.

Mix sugar and spices in a large bowl. Add pumpkin and mix well. Add eggs, mix well. I just used a spatula, but you could do a hand mixer too. Add your evaporated milk and stir until it's an even consistency. Pour into your pie crust. I like to set it on a cookie sheet while it bakes, and I sometimes put tinfoil on the sheet to catch the drips, though not always. If it's going to drip it'll be while you put it into the oven. Depending on how big your pie pan is, this can be quite the balancing act! Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F and bake another 30-40 minutes. If you're doing 2 pies at the same time, rotate them about halfway. When I do this, I ended up baking the bottom pie a while after the top one came out, so keep an eye on them. They're done when you knife comes out clean when inserted to the center. Let cool completely before serving. I like to make these a day ahead of when I need them so they're not rushed.

So, since I was thinking about the nutrition value, I ran this through my recipe program's thing to get the nutrition information. Here's what you get in a slice if you cut into 8 slices:

That just doesn't sound so bad to me. Especially with all those vitamins in it. Most candy bars have more calories. Pioneer Woman's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches have about the same amount of calories, more fat, and not quite as much vitamins. It's a delicious sandwich, and I don't think that anyone would argue that it deserves to be "main dish food." But pumpkin pie's not so bad either. Nutritionally speaking, I think the case could be made for pumpkin pie being better than the grilled cheese. Though that might be a hard thing for a lot of us to take, viscerally. But apparently pie can be more or less healthy.

23 November 2009

Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of homeschooled students. ...

The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results.

The question HSLDA regularly puts before state legislatures is, “If government regulation does not improve the results of homeschoolers why is it necessary?”

In short, the results found in the new study are consistent with 25 years of research, which show that as a group homeschoolers consistently perform above average academically. The Progress Report also shows that, even as the numbers and diversity of homeschoolers have grown tremendously over the past 10 years, homeschoolers have actually increased the already sizeable gap in academic achievement between themselves and their public school counterparts-moving from about 30 percentile points higher in the Rudner study (1998) to 37 percentile points higher in the Progress Report (2009). Read more...

22 November 2009

As I see it, the attraction of liberalism is the "good works" that it wants to accomplish. Save the whales. Feed the poor. House the needy. Educate and provide health care to these stricken with poverty. These are each good goals, many of which I share. My issue with liberalism, which is often on the Democrat's agenda, is the means by which they seek to accomplish these goals.

Liberals say: "Let's provide health care for everyone! Nobody should be without good health care."

Me: "OK, that's a noble goal. How will you pay for it?"

Liberals: "We're going to use public money."

This is, more or less, what I see in the current health care "reform" debate. But, where does so-called public money come from? It comes from taxes, withheld from private citizens.

Withheld.

To Withhold. verb.
1. to hold back; restrain or check.
2. to refrain from giving or granting: to withhold payment.
3. to collect (taxes) at the source of income.-Dictionary.com (emphasis added)

Money that the government "witholds" - or takes - from private citizens. This is the source of "public" money. Any time the government gives, it must therefore begin its giving with taking from another. If we have a governmental program that pays my hospital bills, it must be funded by money taken from my neighbors. If we have a program that educates my children, it must be funded with money taken from my neighbors. If the government gives it is giving money that was taken.

This is not charity! Charitable works are voluntary. The idea, recently floated in Congress, of requiring "volunteerism" from every American citizen, is the idea of forced labor. This is true as well of requiring Americans to "volunteer" to help with their neighbor's bills, whether they be medical bills, heating bills, or grocery bills.

I have two main problems with governmental charity-by-force.

The first problem I have with governmental "charity" is that I believe it is outside the scope of our government. Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture for President Eisenhower and Apostle in the Church said it very well:

[T]he proper function of government is limited only to those spheres of activity within which the individual citizen has the right to act. By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft and involuntary servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute the wealth or force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will. Government is created by man. No man possesses such power to delegate. The creature cannot exceed the creator.

The second problem with this sort of governmental charity-by-force is that I believe it is immoral. I believe taking from one to give to another is theft, and when one convinces the government to do it the government then becomes party to that theft. If the government derives its just powers from the governed, as the Declaration of Independence declares, then the government can only do that which would be just and moral for the individual to do. Forcing my neighbor, against her will, to pay my bills, is unjust. I would be sent to prison for it, and rightly so. The assertion made by our Congress is that when government does this same thing it somehow is right. I don't believe it for a minute!

In fact, the very idea of charity-by-force is, in my opinion, straight out of the Adversary's playbook. "I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost," is what he said in the Great Counsel. His plan was to force us to do right, but that is not what the Lord intends:

The gospel plan is based on individual responsibility. Our article of faith states the eternal truth “that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression” (A of F 1:2). This requirement of individual responsibility, which has many expressions in our doctrine, is in sharp contrast to Satan’s plan to “redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost “ (Moses 4:1). The plan of the Father and the Savior is based on individual choice and individual effort.

Brother Oaks goes on in that same talk to discuss how this idea of personal responsibility is often in conflict with popular ideas of the world:

The doctrine and practice of personal responsibility and personal effort collide with individual traditions and local cultures in many lands. We live in a world where there are large differences in income and material possessions and where there are many public and private efforts to narrow these differences. The followers of the Savior are commanded to give to the poor, and many do. But some gifts have promoted a culture of dependency, reducing their recipients’ need for earthly food or shelter but impoverishing them in their eternal need for individual growth. The growth required by the gospel plan only occurs in a culture of individual effort and responsibility. It cannot occur in a culture of dependency. Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or resources we could provide for ourselves weakens us spiritually and retards our growth toward what the gospel plan intends us to be.

In short, taking from the one to give to another creates a culture of dependence which is not good for either the giver or the receiver. It simply impoverishes both parties, both monetarily and spiritually. Yet this is the model that my liberal friends (whom I hope will comment on this, as I know that several of you visit my blog!) are supporting. These are the reasons why I cannot support public health care, public education, really, any social agenda done publicly. These things belong exclusively to the private sector.

If I do the right thing, but in an immoral way, I am still wrong, no matter how noble my intentions.

21 November 2009

It's been yet another busy week around here, but it's been a good one. Monkey and I are both feeling much better, and Andy's going to the doctor on Monday, so hopefully he will be joining us in healthyville soon.

Phonics: I made a new game this week, based on the "Rainbow Game" posted last week at Loving Our Homeschool's wrap-up. I was a little concerned that it would be too "old" for Monkey. I shouldn't have worried; he loves it.

I made up a batch of cards with 2 letter blends from Webster's Syllabary, as the 3 letter blends seemed really hard for him at this point. I just did the first column, with all the short /a/ sounds; 31 cards in all. We played the game twice this week, and the first time we got through the deck nearly 2 times. I think the second time ended more quickly, but still it's great practice! Monkey's getting the hang of reading the letters from left to right, but he still hasn't had that "ah-ha!" moment yet where he blends. That's OK. We're having a good time. This is an addition to the Happy Phonics. The program goes right to CVC words. But the program is intended for bigger kids, and I don't mind making and playing games with my Monkey so it's all good. It will be very easy to do up additional cards to practice blends with other vowels when the time comes. To practice whatever, really. It's a very flexible game.

Math: We're beginning to get a little more into the Math Expressions program now. This week I just focused on doing their "daily routines." These are simply daily counting practice at first (it changes later in the book). We added them to our calendar, which we are inconsistent on, but I'm working on improving that. What we do is first, we have a 120 chart. I laminated it and every day Monkey colors in the next number. Once we have 10, the "old" tens will be bracketed, and he'll color the 1s in the "new" ten we're working on. If that makes any sense. He then practices counting the numbers. We use fingers for this. Next, we have a page with 100 pennies on it, and he colors the next penny. Then he counts them. He has a brand new pointer he wantedneeded to buy at Hobby Lobby, and he uses this to point at the "Number Parade" taped to the door. These numbers are on cards, with the correct number of dots for each number just below. They look just like the ones on the flannel board, only lined up and taped to the door in a parade. And we have a mason jar that we're adding straws to. I have him count the straws, then we talk about what happens if we add another, and recount them. The idea is for this stuff to be quick and student-led, though it's neither one of those things now. He also spent a little bit of time looking at Anno's Counting Book. That book is awesome. I also built him a "Silly Snakes" matching game. This one was very easy because I just photocopied it out of The Lucky Learner.All I did was color it.

Nature Study: Nuthin. Again. I've got to do better on this.

Memory: He is enjoying memorizing things enough that tonight he initiated doing his verses on his own. He's got two of the 10 commandments that he knows - "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not steal." Though I need to look up the citations again because they are mixing up in my head. We've been working on saying Romans 8:16 slow enough that someone besides his parents could understand what he's saying. Maybe we can convince him to say it for Nana and Grandpa on Thanksgiving.

Art: We did more fondant. I have pictures, but I didn't download them yet. Monkey and I also colored a number book. We got it from Childcare Land, which has a daily free printable. You have to kind of keep an eye on it, as they're generally only available for the day. (She's got a Yahoo group, just make sure that it's the one that is just a mailing list, not the one that's a discussion group for daycare providers. That one's not very friendly to parents.)

Read-Aloud: We finished up Little House on the Prairie, and after some dithering, I decided to read Through the Looking Glass. We have a beautifully illustrated version I picked up at a thrift store a while back, though I can't remember who drew those pictures right now. But Monkey seemed to enjoy the first chapter when I read it him today.

Mom's Ed: I finished up my fondant class, so now it's just a matter of practicing the skills on my own until I can drape a cake in fondant reliably by next April for that wedding. I'm getting better. It's easier to do if you do the fondant a bit thick, but it tastes so much better if you do it thin. Plus, thin is easier to eat. I'm using marshmallow fondant now, and playing bit with gumpaste flowers. Hopefully I can get my current cake finished up tomorrow and post pictures.

20 November 2009

I took a quiz this evening to discover my "energy impact," though, for the record, I think that global warming is at best blown all out of proportion and more likely a hoax. After all, we haven't seen global temperature increases in the past 10 years or so. Additionally, I heard on the radio tonight that Mr. Gore's been taken to court for 9 counts of faulty information in his "An Inconvenient Truth" in Great Britain, and he lost. Nevertheless, it seems to me that we have a duty to be responsible with our use of the earth's resources, so I still find this sort of thing useful.

The quiz is a pretty comprehensive one, and flexible enough to give you ideas for projects you could do to reduce your impact. I admit, I did have to simply guess on how much of our yard is covered in cement, and how big our lot is. But otherwise, it was pretty easy. The average score is 100, and I came in at about 66 after I'd made my adjustments. Not too shabby. Though I did decide that all the mileage that my husband puts on for work should count in his employer's impact! If I include the work truck, it puts our impact up to 100. He travels quite a bit, though happily he's nearly always back home again by bedtime.

18 November 2009

Study order and cleanliness in your various occupations. Adorn your city and neighborhood. Make your homes lovely, and adorn your hearts with the grace of God.

The duty of the mother is to watch over her children and give them their early education, for impressions received in infancy are lasting. ... The child reposes implicit confidence in the mother, you behold in him a natural attachment, no matter what her appearance may be, that make shim think his mother is the best and handsomest mother in the world. ... You will, no doubt, recollect reading, in the Book of Mormon, of two thousand young men, who were brought up to believe that, if they put their whole trust in God, and served him, no power would overcome them. You also recollect reading of them going out to fight, and so bold were they, and so mighty their faith, that it was impossible for their enemies to slay them. This power and faith they obtained through the teachings of their mothers.

These duties and responsibilities devolve upon mothers far more than upon fathers, for you know the latter are often in the field or canyon, and are frequently away from home, sometimes for several days together, attending to labors which compel them to be absent from home. But the mother is at home with the children continually; and if they are taught lessons of usefulness it depends on her.

To gain the spiritual ascendancy over ourselves, and the influences with which we are surrounded, through a rigid course of self-discipline, is our first consideration, it is our first labor, before we can pave the way for our children to grow up without sin unto salvation.

Let us live so that the spirit of our religion will live within us, then we have peace, joy, happiness, and contentment, which makes such pleasant fathers, pleasant mothers, pleasant children, pleasant households, neighbors, communities and cities. That is worth living for, and I do think that the Latter-day Saints ought to strive for this.

Let mothers commence to teach their children while in their laps, there do you teach them to love the Lord, and keep His commandments. Teach them to keep your commandments, and you will teach them to keep the commandments of your husbands. It is not the prerogative of the child to dictate to his mother, or his father; and it is not the prerogative of the father to rise up and dictate to his God whom he serves.

If a mother wishes to control her child, in the first place let her learn to control herself, then she may be successful in bringing the child into subjection to her will.

I have often thought and said, "How necessary it is for mothers, who are the first teachers of their children and who make the first impressions on their young minds, to be strict." How careful they should be never to impress a false idea on the mind of a child! They should never teach them anything unless they know it is correct in every respect. They should never say a word, especially in the hearing of a child, that is improper. How natural it is for women to talk baby talk to their children; it seems just as natural for the men to do so. It is just as natural for me as to draw my breath to talk nonsense to a child on my lap, and yet I have been trying to break myself of it ever since I began to have a family.

Teach your children from their youth, never to set their hearts immoderately upon an object of this world.

Parents should never drive their children, but lead them along, giving them knowledge as their minds are prepared to receive it. Chastening may be necessary betimes, but parents should govern their children by faith rather than by the rod, leading them kindly by good example into all truth and holiness.

All quotes from Discourses of Brigham Young, edited by John A. Wistoe, pg 200-208.

17 November 2009

We just finished reading Little House on the Prairie this afternoon. Monkey really enjoyed it. I'm still picking out what's going to be our next read-aloud. I got a beautifully illustrated version of... well, I can't find it. I think it was A Christmas Carol, and I was thinking about looking it over for our next read-aloud, but I can't find it this afternoon, which is a bummer. But I've also got the Boxcar Children and Charlotte's Web that are possibilities. I'll have to keep looking for that Christmas story though. I was thinking (before I knew my book was lost) that it would be nice to do something short, and then start the Christmas book right after Thanksgiving next week. (Yikes! Next week already!) One thing I was pondering was doing a Little House lapbook. That one looks like it would have been better to do it as we went along though. I'm still debating though. I need to look more closely at those activities. I'll bet that Monkey's just a little young still.

16 November 2009

This is a little dated. It's from 27 April 2009. So obviously there's been some changes in the numbers since then. I don't have a lot of experience with the CDD's website, but it looks like the current numbers for deaths from H1N1 are between 2500-6100, out of 5 to 13 million cases. So about .05% of the people who get H1N1 are dieing. The CDC estimates there are about 36,000 flu-related deaths each year, not including swine flu. That's 6 times the number of swine flu deaths! Ron Paul mentions that there have been 1300 tuberculosis last year, with 644 deaths in 2006. Assuming the numbers of cases in 2008 is about the same as 2006, that's approximately 49% of tuberculosis cases resulting in death. So I can readily understand why he thinks tuberculosis is the more serious illness.

But don't loose track of Dr. Paul's point in the flu numbers. It's easy to do.

1. He's seen this before: the government created a panic, rapidly created flu shots, they planned to save the world. Sounds familiar. Only more people died from the shots than the flu. Those CDC numbers don't seem to be saying how many people are struggling with side effects from this rapidly created (and thus poorly tested) vaccine. Big government folks love a good panic.

2. What's the Department of Homeland Security doing messing around in our health care?? Dr. Paul points out that they really aren't acting outside the prerogatives of that department, which is why he voted against it. Do we really want a governmental agency with this kind of power over our lives? I certainly don't!

3. "The big question is, does bigger government always solve these problems? They usually make things much worse." I think he's got a good point here. Government inefficiency is legendary. I simply don't understand why the people of the United States tolerate so much government interference in their health care - and not just tolerate, but seem to welcome it.

4. The central economic planning medicine we've had for 30-some years hasn't worked very well, so the plan now is to go to socialized medicine, AKA ObamaCare. J. Reuben Clark said the following about Socialism:

The plain and simple issue now facing us in America is freedom or slavery...

Our real enemies are communism and its running mate, socialism...

And never forget for one moment that communism and socialism are state slavery. World conquest has been, is now, and ever will be its ultimate goal...

15 November 2009

The Classical HS Carnival is growing! This time around we have 6 submissions to enjoy.

First, we have Brenda who generously shares her First E-book which includes thoughts about creating an "Atmosphere of Learning." She goes on to talk about reading to our children, nature study, and science. Her e-book is free, and posted at The Tie That Binds Us.

Speaking of reading to our kids, Autumn presents Are You Reading to Your Children? posted at Homeschooling In Kerrville. She says, "I remember how overwhelming it was when I first began cloth diapering. There were so many choices (and SO many more now!) and I had no idea where to start." In addition to some encouragement about read-alouds, Autumn also talks about narration and family worship.

14 November 2009

In case you had a hard time hearing him, as we haven't even begun working on the whole "speak slowly and clearly" thing, he's saying Romans 8:16. Sorry the video's so dark. We need to find some lamps that we like so it's not so dim in our house at night.

My little brother is in the Marshall Islands! He'll be serving a 2 year mission there. He's in the third picture, back row, second from the left, wearing a green tie. How cool is that? I'm so glad that Sister Smith is a blogger.

I'm noticing a trend, as I do these weekly wrap-ups: every week, I look back on the week and feel like it was very busy. This week was no different, though we had some different sorts of activities going on! I had lots of frosting stuff to do, between the class I am taking, and the class I taught this week. I am pleased to say that we did a good job on school too, in spite of all the craziness this week. We almost got healthy this week. In fact, my husband and I are both doing much better. But Monkey, poor little sausage, caught the fever thing that's going around. I'm having a hard time deciding if it's influenza or a sinus infection, though now that it's the weekend and I can't take him in until Monday, I'm leaning toward the sinus thing. So there may be a trip to the doctor in the near future for us. When I called thinking that it might be the influenza, they told me that I should keep him home and just treat his symptoms. Ugh. It'd sure be nice to get all three of us healthy again!

Phonics: Nothing fancy this week, just keeping up the blending practice. We used just a piece of paper I'd folded in quarters one day. I wrote the letters on it while we snuggled - we're working on 2 letter blends with short /a/ - and then helped Monkey "read." I knew his attention was done when he wanted my pen, so then he colored all the letters I'd just written. We practiced blending the syllables on my shirt the other day. (It had Grumpy the Dwarf on it, and said "Grumpy" in big fancy letters.) He asks all the time, "What does ___ start with?" We're having a good time with reading. Hopefully in this next week I can get organized enough to get some of our games out again. I can see that he could still use some extra practice telling b from d. We also played with our food:

Math: We did our math with food. We spent a lot of time playing with food this week. It worked. Monkey cracked eggs and counted them up as we went along a couple of times. We also got Anno's Counting Book in the mail, which is such a fun book! It has no words at all, only numbers on one side of the pictures, and cubes that look like base-10 blocks on the other side of the pictures, and a beautiful watercolor scene in the middle. We read it several times, but I was too busy to get my Math Expressions book out and figure out what the "official" use is supposed to be. I think the first thing you do with the book is just read it anyway. Not that it matters. We would likely have just read it regardless. It's a great read. We had a lovely time, all snuggled up and counting. This is going to be a fun math program.

Nature Study: We didn't do tons. I did get him to a park early in the week. I turned him loose out of our truck and then sat back to see what he would do. He ended up noticing several different kinds of seeds and doing a lot of seed crunching. I took some pictures, but I don't know what's happened to them. It was really laid-back. I was thinking about Masterly Inactivity at the time, and I felt like it worked beautifully, though we didn't have time to stay as long as either of us would have liked.

But we must get clearly into our heads what we mean by masterly inactivity. Carlyle's happy phrase has nothing in common with the laisser allez attitude that comes of thinking 'what's the good?' and still further is it removed from the sheer indolence of mind that lets things go their way rather than take the trouble to lead them to any issue. It indicates a fine healthy moral pose which it is worth while for us to analyse. Perhaps the idea is nearly that conveyed in Wordsworth's even more happy phrase, 'wise passiveness'. It indicates the power to act, the desire to act, and the insight and self-restraint which forbid action. But there is, from our point of view at any rate, a further idea conveyed in 'masterly inactivity.' The mastery is not over ourselves only; there is also a sense of authority, which our children should be as much aware of when it is inactive as when they are doing our bidding. The sense of authority is the sine quâ non of the parental relationship, and I am not sure that without that our activities or our inactivity will produce any great results. This element of strength is the backbone of our position. 'We could an' if we would' and the children know it––They are free under authority, which is liberty; to be free without authority is license.

-Charlotte Mason

Memory: Monkey is doing so well with this! I forgot to do a thing with Who Has Seen the Wind?, but we've been very consistent with the Bible verses we're doing. He's getting quite good at saying Romans 8:16, and we added 2 Timothy 1:7 this week. I'm hoping that the 2 Timothy verse will help him overcome his fear of the dark, which is why I chose that one. It's too soon to tell for sure how effective that's going to be, but I'm hopeful.

Art: I was reminded what the difference between product-oriented art is (I want this to be beautiful) and process-oriented art (This is enjoyable; let's do it some more!) We had some of both, though it was mostly me worrying about my product, and Monkey enjoying his process. Not surprisingly, this mostly worked itself out in food this week, though I did make my first contribution to the Giraffe Man's Giraffe Collection. This was another place where we saw product vs. process in our art this week. My giraffe picture is hung up on the wall; Monkey's got chopped to smithereens after he finished coloring, because cutting is so enjoyable. And that's OK.

Mom's Ed: This is really the source of all the food in our education this week. I'm in the middle of my 3 weeks of fondant class, so there is cake and fondant around. I need to practice and when I last asked Monkey if he wanted to "do fondant class" with me, he lit up like a Christmas tree. His eyes sparkled, he bounced on his tippy-toes, and he said, "Please!" So we did fondant class. I'd do it again with him, but he's sick. We'll do it more after he's better. But I did get my first fondant cake done.

I was also teaching an icing class this week. I was teaching how to do my fancy cookies, and I learned some in the process of teaching. For one, I need to control things a bit more carefully when I do the classes. Several of the things I've taught at church over the past year had "iffy" results, and they could have been better if I'd delegated less. There's a fine balance between getting your students to be hands-on, and making sure that everything is set up properly. I think that I need to be a bit more careful in my set-up so that I can make sure that they have success at the class. Success in the class is so important to having confidence to try again on your own! I also learned that 2 classes in one day is too much. Next time they want a morning and an evening class, we'll have to separate them in time. Two in one day was too much for Monkey.

13 November 2009

There's a guy in Norway that's collecting 1,000,000 Giraffes. He's posting them into a gallery, and he's got a blog about them. Today's giraffe is amazing. Looks like fun. I'm thinking that we're going to be doing some giraffe art! I may even make a giraffe for my next cake. That would be fun, and I even found a fondant tutorial, though I'll probably modify it so my giraffe looks more like a giraffe and less like a horse. Check out the giraffe gallery; it's a fun place!

My fondant class met tonight. This time, we were supposed to bring in a cake, frosted with fondant. We would work on learning how to decorate while we were in class.

This is the finished product. I did some in class, but most of the work I actually did after class because we spent all the class time learning our tools, but that sort of thing doesn't make a very pretty cake. I kept squishing up my "finished" fondants; I wanted a pretty cake.

The back flower is the one I made the other day. I made the front daisy this evening. You can see how I've learned a few things in this class! Thin is good. Plus, it tastes better when it's thin.

I am pleased with how the sides turned out. The star-flowers are so cute, and I like the dots. So now I need to deliver the cake to its intended "victim." Hopefully she'll let me have a taste!

09 November 2009

As it turns out, we've done a lot of school with our food the past little bit.

We had scrambled eggs for dinner. Monkey loves to crack the eggs, so I have have him break them into a small bowl, which we check for shells. Then he pours them into the big bowl and we count them.

Today, we used the letter cookies we made over the weekend to practice blending. Once he gave it a shot he got to eat the letters. What's not to love? We're working our way toward that first Bob Book, so we were eating T, M, S, and A, and specifically practicing blends and words he'll need to read the first little book.

Then, after dinner, I got out my fondant toys and was playing around. Of course, Monkey had to do "fondant class" with me. We had a good time.

There's a definite diference between my creations and my inspiration, but hey, I haven't even finished the class yet, so I'm still willing to cut myself a little slack. And I learned a bit on each one. I did the pumpkin last, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Monkey put some of his creations on the plate to dry as well, which is awesome.

I stopped by the thrift shop again today. We were looking for warm stuff for Monkey to wear. I hoped to find him another flannel to wear, "like Bob the Builder." We didn't find any clothes today, but I did get another stack of books. It's a good mix this time: some classics, some fiction, some non-fiction. And a library book. Yeah, that's right. I bought a library book at the thrift shop. Oops. I guess someone wasn't quite paying attention. I didn't realize it until I got home and started putting my books into Shelfari. I got looking at the book, Cool Chemistry Concoctions: 50 Formulas that Fizz, Foam, Splatter & Ooze, and I didn't see anything on it that looked like it was withdrawn. So I called up the library. It's listed as "long overdue." The librarian got a good laugh out of it. So I guess we'll have a field trip to the other library on the south end of town to return their wayward book. Too bad I still didn't find my own library book that's lost. Too bad it's not the same library and I can't get them to cancel my debt with this return. Oh well. At least I get to keep the rest of the books. Here's what I got this time:

08 November 2009

It's not that long, and Christmas will be here, crazy as that seems. We're making our lists of gifts, and I'm figuring out what I need to make, what I need to buy, and we should probably think about getting our cards ready so we can get them out in the near future. I know from past years that Christmas cards are much more fun if you send them out early: we get many more back the years we do it early. Plus, it's much less stressful.

But all that is secondary to the real meaning of Christmas, and to the things we ought to be thinking about during the Christmas season. It seems like every year we reexamine our traditions to see if they are still serving us well, and tweak them a little bit. This year is no different. I ran across a very thoughtful post, over at The Apple Cider Mill.

Advent literally means "coming," and it is a four-week season that precedes Christmas. It is meant to be a season of penitence, reflection, and fasting, but as we all know, this is hardly the tenor or focus of the four weeks that precede Christmas for most people. Usually, the season of Advent can be categorized for contemporary Americans by business, exorbitance, indulgence, and stress. Many Christians try to step back from the temptation to follow the crowd in this regard, but all too often what they end up with is a period of time that doesn't feel preparatory; it merely feels ordinary. We know that we don't want the weeks before Christmas to feel "ordinary," and so we feel torn between cutting back and giving into the secular siren call. In either case, how we usually feel by the time Christmastide rolls around is exhausted and dissatisfied.

Advent provides a wonderful balance. It is not ordinary time; it is a season set apart in anticipation of the great feast and celebration of Chistmas to come. The very penitent nature of the season prepares us to surrender completely to the celebration of Emmanuel, God with us. The more we surrender to Advent, the more our hearts will be ready to receive the gift of the Christ Child, just as Lent prepares our hearts for the gift of our Resurrected Lord.

Now we, not being Catholic, don't celebrate Lent. But I think that she's onto something here. There is merit to the idea of planning, and her analogy about preparing for a baby coming (see the next quote) is an interesting one. I don't know that I want to separate "Advent" into its own season, but I can understand why she does and I think that we can take from the ideas. Actually, when you explain Lent like this, there may be more to it than I was previously aware of. I'd never had a good Catholic explain what it's all about before, and it never made a lot of sense to me. There is reverence and beauty in the symmetry of Bethany's celebration of Advent and Lent.

She has several suggestions for how to go about celebrating Advent - that is, how to focus on Christ during the Christmas season. I like quite a few of them. The first thing that Bethany suggests is an attitude adjustment.

Remember that Advent is a season of PREPARATION for Christmas. Advent is not Christmas. This distinction may look different in different homes; it's the principle that counts. So start thinking about how your Advent can differ from you Christmastide.

For those who think Christmas just comes of its own accord and requires no preparation, I offer the analogy of a birth in the family. Of course, the baby is going to come at the end of gestation whether you prepare for it or not, but you do prepare. You go to lamaze classes, you set up a nursery, you pray, you reflect, you journal, you anticipate. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ. Moreover, we are looking forward with hope to His Second Coming. He's going to come, anyway, of course. But, it will be better for us if we're ready for the celebration!

Go read the rest of her post. It's got some cool ideas for creating a lovely Christmas season and filling your home with the spirit of Christ.

One of Bethany's friends tried to leave her a post-length comment, which blogger wouldn't accept because it was too long. The friend emailed it instead, and Bethany posted it. It has some more great ideas, including this that would be great for the season:

If you like classical music, there are so many wonderful pieces written for the celebration of Advent. Start with Bach's Cantata BWV 140. Read a translation of the text first (it's in German) and then listen to the cantata (really sit down and LISTEN without doing anything else - if you are out walking with your ipod, or riding in your car, it doesn't count...) and meditate on what the music and the text say about Christ, our relationship to him, and his second coming.

An interesting thing that I notice in both these women's writing is the intertwining of not only Easter and Christmas themes, but also, within the Christmas celebration, an awareness of the Second Coming, and excitement about that. What a cool idea! Bethany's friend had some good ideas for this as well.

Speaking of the second coming, which I was a few points ago, because Advent is a time of preparing to celebrate Christ's first coming (incarnation) as well as looking forward in anticipation and preparation for the second coming, I like to use Advent as a time to study parables about the kingdom of heaven and Bible texts about the wedding feast that is to come. Start with the story of the virgins and the oil, and go from there.

And it came to pass that they came many times against us, the Nephites, to battle. But our kings and our leaders were mighty men in the faith of the Lord; and they taught the people the ways of the Lord; wherefore, we withstood the Lamanites and swept them away out of our lands, and began to fortify our cities, or whatsoever place of our inheritance.

And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war—yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin, and all preparations for war.

And thus being prepared to meet the Lamanites, they did not prosper against us. But the word of the Lord was verified, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.

07 November 2009

I've had a very icky cold for at least a week now. It's included a nasty cough that gives me a sore throat. It's not very much fun. But I have learned a new trick for dealing with it: my lemon honey stuff. Here's what you do.

Fill your favorite mug with water. Leave a bit of space, about like you would for making hot chocolate, so you have room to add stuff later. Nuke it. I do a minute, and it works out perfectly. Next, add a generous slosh of lemon juice. I have some left from canning and it works great. If I was guessing on the measurements, I'd say I probably add 2-4 T of lemon juice. Something around than 1/4 a cupish. But I've never measured. Then add a generous squeeze of honey. If you're smarter than me, you'll do the honey first, and then you'll be able to see the pile of honey in the bottom. Make a good pile. Stir it up. Now, taste it. I like my lemon-honey stuff to be a nice balance between sweet and tart. I often have to add just a bit more honey. It really hits the spot.

06 November 2009

I decided to try bagels this week. They were fun. Pretty easy, actually. And quite tasty. I used these instructions, but modified the recipe from one I found... and have since lost. So no link to the original. But here's what I did:

I'm experimenting with soaking my grains, so I ground the wheat (hurray for food storage rotation), and put it in a bowl with the honey and 1 1/2 cups hot water, and the lemon juice. It was really dry, so I added more water until it looked better. Then I left it sitting on my counter overnight. The lemon juice was supposed to break down an acid in the wheat, so that it was more readily digested... I'm still learning about that soaking thing. In any case, it wasn't really a factor in the final taste. It tasted like... bread.

The next morning, I did the bread thing. Added the yeast, which made things REALLY runny, probably because I'd added that extra water before. But I added more evil regular white flour until it was a pretty normal bread texture. The wheat flour was really coarse, which I think has more to do with my tiny little grinder (what can you expect, for $15?) than anything else. So I needed some regular flower for a decent bread texture. Cut the dough into 8 balls, and let 'em rest. Just like my bagel instructions said, I rolled them out into snakes, turned them into a loop (the dough was quite sticky still, so that was easy), and left them to rest a few more minutes. Then I plopped them into a vat of boiling water.

This was tricky. They were sticky, I was worried they'd look weird because they were a bit deformed, going in. No biggie. One minute each side, drain on a dishtowel. Park the boiled, drained bagels on a greased cookie sheet to wait for their companions. Throw the towel down the laundry chute when you're done because it's sticky.

The only snag I ran into was the instructions say your cookies sheet ought to be "lightly" oiled, so I decided that I had too much and wiped some off. Bad Idea. They stuck and tore when it was time to flip them after 10 minutes at 425. It was very sad. But I transferred them to another cookie sheet. This time I used Pam & they were sliding around all over the place. Of course, they were cooked-side-down at this point too. But the other side finished cooking and they were delicious. I should have taken a picture in the 20 minutes that you have to wait for them after they come out of the oven. But I didn't. And then I realized they were all gone and I had no pictures of the finished product. But let me assure you, even though they were not beautiful bagels, they tasted amazing with homemade pumpkin butter on them.

OK, this hasn't been our best week ever. We were sicker than last week, so we got less accomplished. But what we did was good.

Reading: We tried out the Bob books; Monkey's not quite ready. But he's close. Oh so very close! Sadly, we then got sicker still, and haven't done anything with practicing blending all week.

Math: I got my Math Expressions teacher's edition last week, and I've read a good chunk of it now. Who knew that reading a teacher's edition was so engrossing? It looks like much of the manipulatives I can make for the felt board - things like the "tiles" with dots that I mentioned last week. They do "daily routines" that I'll need to make up some sheets for. I think those can be covered in contact paper and put in a sturdy folder or a binder, though I haven't decided for sure what exactly it will be. I still need to get a copy of Anno's Counting Book, which is on the agenda for this afternoon, and then once that gets here we'll be full steam ahead for math. He's already much more secure in his concepts of what the numbers are. ME focuses on 1-5 for a long time, then 1-10. But it looks like we're going to have fun. I have got to get some video of him jumping in circles and doing animal noises to practice counting! It's just sooo funny. He did a picture of one today:

One interesting thing that I'm seeing is the value of Charlotte Mason's council to do short lessons, but insist on doing it well - perfectly, if possible. Here are her words:

“[N]ever let the child dawdle over a copy-book [penmanship] or sum, sit dreaming with his book before him. When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away." (vol.1 p 141)

With Monkey, this idea means that when he's no longer engaged, we put it away. My Mom gave me very similar advice, once upon a time, to put away toys before they're uninteresting. This keeps things fresh for Monkey, and keeps me from getting so very frustrated with normal 3 year old behavior, and also gets the lesson I'm trying to teach into his head. Works for me!

Read Aloud: In the Book of Mormon we're in 3 Nephi 14 - just finishing up the Sermon on the Mount, as given in the Americas. Monkey knows the song "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" and wanted me to sing it today after we finished reading. I think that he's really going to enjoy reading about the life and ministry of the Lord when we finish the Book of Mormon. I had hoped to be working on that by now, but we're not. However, we are making steady progress to the end of the book, which is something.

We made a little progress in Little House on the Prairie. He loves to look at the pictures in the book that we've got. And he's clearly engaged in the story, which I love. I find the language intriguing. Laura Ingalls Wilder has an interesting turn of phrase and it's got a lovely rhythm to it. I remember enjoying the story when I was younger, but I hadn't realized that the language itself that she uses is so spare and effective.

Nature Study: Nothing. We were all too sick to go outside much. Though I did try to use some of the nature words in conversation with Monkey so that he'll remember them. He knows that the "oval" moons are gibbous moons. We talked about the mallard ducks we saw last week. I'm making manipulatives for him to use in making his pictures of numbers, and the current batch is birds we've seen. He recognized the mallards and named them without prompting, which pleased me to no end. But as far as getting out there and being in nature, not so much. We'll do better again next week. We may even get some done tomorrow, in our yard. We really need to put the gardens to bed for the winter.

Memory: Monkey is finally able to say Romans 8:16 end to end, though he likes it better if he can get away with just saying the end: "We are the children of God. Romans 8:16." I've been trying to teach him the meaning of front end of the verse, and I think that it's helping. But with or without the first half, it sure is sweet to hear him say "we are the children of God!"

Happily, everyone but Daddy is on the upswing now, and feeling better. Hopefully Daddy will follow quickly! Next week should be better. And in the mean time I'm learning that I'm going to need to cut back on outside activities: it seems like doesn't take much to derail the whole day of school. Which is ridiculous. We're not doing that much for that long. But you add very much extra into our day and things don't get done. Important things. So I'm going to have to learn to say NO. That, I think, is going to be a tough lesson for this mama. Though I find I am more and more of a home-body all the time. Home is nice.

04 November 2009

I'm taking a cake decorating class. Not just any decorating, either: fondant. The very pretty stuff. No seams. Life-like flowers. Tons of gear. This is what it all looked like before I packed it up to take to class tonight.

This is what it looked like after I packed it. I should have put it in two bags. There is just.too.much. in that bag. Monkey was very concerned about what I was doing with "his" rolling pin. Because obviously I bought it for him!

I learned several things this evening:

1. I learned, at least in theory, how to cover a cake with fondant. I say in theory because I practiced this skill on cardboard circles, and did not "glue" the fondant down with regular icing. But I'm supposed to take a cake, already covered, to class next week, so I guess I'll be finding out how well this took.

2. I learned how to make something called a "carnation base." These are not pictured: we left them at class to dry until next week. They did look pretty cool though.

3. I learned to make a daisy. See below.

4. I learned to make a calla lily, also below. This was extremely easy and a "freebie" because it wasn't on the official Wilton syllabus.

5. I learned to make that peony-looking flower which they said was a sort of romantic made-up flower, and not really based on anything, but looks pretty much just like the peonies that I dug out of my yard and gave away.

6. I learned that fondant really does taste as bad as they say it does. Plus, it gets so hard that you can bang it on the table. Makes a good tap-tap noise when you do it. It's pretty, but it's only sort of food.

Monkey and I sat down to work on his phonics the other day. He loves the white board, so that's what we were doing: practicing blending rhymed words. Then he surprised me: he started tracing over my letters on the white board! So I encouraged him to do the letters right: top to bottom, counter-clockwise, and all. I guess that I'd better get some sort of information on the proper way to write letters, just to make sure that I'm telling him correctly.

When he was done with drawing the letters, we moved on to a spur-of-the-moment math game: I drew boxes and he's put dots in them. At first, he was making circles and I'd put dots in. I'd intended to count up to 5. But he wanted to do the dots. And he only wanted one, so that was the game we played. Plenty of practice of 1. It was a good time.